Let’s be serious in making a drainage plan

Last weekend, we had terrific rainfall which meant that many of our roads were temporarily flooded and most of our creeks and esteros, which have already been clogged for many years, suffered a dramatic overflow. Well, this gives a reality check to what was said last week when we were told that our drainage master plan needs upgrading since it was done last 2004. In truth, there was something wrong with the drainage master plan to start with. Mind you, 2004 wasn’t that long ago, so why does it need upgrading to start with unless it was defective to start with?

Mind you, a well-made drainage master plan, even if it was constructed more than a hundred years ago, would still work today if it was made properly. I’ve seen this in Copenhagen, Denmark and in Barcelona, Spain. At this point, the Cebu City government ought to look and study the 2016 Comprehensive Study for a Metro Cebu Integrated Flood and Drainage System Master Plan of the Department of Public Works and Highways-7. Perhaps a foreign consultant can inform us that this new Integrated Flood and Drainage System might work for more than a hundred years, hopefully it includes the restoration of the major waterways to its original depth, width, and length. If DPWH can do this, I think we can make this work.

Perhaps, the harder part of this work is declogging the waterways where we have to remove a lot of garbage. Perhaps what we need here is a very thorough study of our creeks and esteros and a master list as to who are living beside it. It’s easy enough to check whether those residents living beside the rivers or esteros are throwing their garbage into the river, simply by finding out if they have little garbage collected by garbage trucks. I think it’s time to penalize these residents who use our rivers or esteros as their garbage dump. This has to be stopped!

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Surely by now you must have realized majority of the streets in the north district of Cebu City are being cemented. However, I find it unfortunate when the construction of half the road is being done, the contractor has workers who act as traffic enforcers to ensure that when a street has been turned into a one-way street, all vehicles have to obey them.

I really find it unfortunate that in our road towards Martinez Compound, which is the Juana Osmeña Extension, many motorcycles risk being hit because when cars stop, motorcycles still push through the roadway.

At this point, I would like to request Mayor Edgardo Labella to station a temporary CCTO official to ensure that all vehicles, including motorcycles follow the simple rules and wait for vehicles to pass through, and if these motorcycle drivers don’t obey, their licenses should be confiscated. While I’m referring to Juana Osmeña Extension near the Twin Towers, I certainly hope that this isn’t happening to other streets that are being fixed.

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Remember the slogan “End the Endo Bill?” Well, last week this proposed law was vetoed by Pres. Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte and last Sunday the president defended his decision to veto the security of tenure bill as he faces criticism for allegedly turning his back on his campaign promise to ban labor-only contracting and other abusive labor practices. President Duterte insisted that the lawmakers should have followed what was agreed upon regarding the measure, one of the bills he certified as urgent.

He said, "You do not make it hard for the capitalist also to move." He added, "The security of tenure should also provide the security of the capital...This is a democracy. It should be fair." He also said that employees who are lazy, incompetent, or who have "no IQ" may go to the labor arbiter if their employers decide to fire them.

“You are now saddled with one or two employees and if you fire them, he will go to arbiter, to the NLRC (National Labor Relations Commission), then they will be facing cases instead of helping his fellowmen, he would have a problem and it has happened many times." This gives you an idea that he has already looked carefully at the entire spectrum of the Security of Tenure Bill.

Duterte said he is thinking of resubmitting the bill to Congress to introduce provisions that would balance the interests of stakeholders.